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Chickamauga. 

XTseless, Disastrous Battle. 



Talk by Smith D. Atkins. Opera 
House, 3Ieii<lota, Illinois, Feb- 
ruary 2*2, 1907, at invitation of 
Woman's Relief Corps, (i. A. K. 



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When the Civil War came in this country forty-seven years 
ago, I was a young lawyer in Freeport, with not a particle of 
military schooling, and not the slightest inclination for military 
life. But when our good President, Abraham Lincoln, made his 
first call for three months' volunteers in April, 1861, I enlisted 
as a private soldier, and when mustered out at the end of three 
months, I again enlisted as a private soldier, resolved that I would 
serve in the army until the rebellion was crushed. • Promotions 
came to me very rapidly. I always had a larger command than I 
believed myself capable of handling. 

On August 16th, 1863, when the movement of the Army of 
the Cumberland began from Winchester and Dechard in middle 
Tennessee against the Army of the Confederacy under Bragg at 
phattanooga, I was not, as a matter of course, informed of the 
plans of the campaign, for I held only the rank of a colonel of 
a single regiment, and a boy at that, attached to Wilder's Brigade 
of Mounted Infantry, armed with Spencer repeating rifles, the 
best arm for service in the field ever invented, better than any 
other arm in the world then or now, so simple in its mechanism 
that it never got out of order, and was always ready for instant 
service. 

All the world knows now that the object of the campaign 
was the capture of Chattanooga. I am not an educated soldier; 
I am not capable of making any technical criticism of military 
campaigns; my opinions possess no military value; I know noth- 
ing of grand tactics, and very little of any kind of tactics; since 
the war I have made no critical study of that campaign. I am 
averse to such studies; when the war ended I tried to put behind 
me everything connected with the war, and devote my whole at- 
tention to the duties and pursuits of peace; I would not talk about, 
or read about the Civil War. I placed in my library many volumes 
of campaigns in which I was engaged, but I would not read them. 
By accident one day I took up a little volume, "Hood's Advance 
and Retreat" over ground with which I was familiar, and read 



it with intense interest, and I afterward read with interest many 
volumes concerning the war. 

When the advance of the Army of the Cumberland began it 
was the desire of General Rosecrans, commanding the Army of 
the Cumberland, to confuse and mislead Bragg, commanding the 
Confederate Army. In that he was signally successful. Sending 
a portion of his army, cavalry, infantry and artillery, across the 
Cumberland mountains into the valley of the Tennessee north 
of Chattanooga to threaten that city from the north, he led his 
main army across the Tennessee at Bridgeport, Tennessee, and 
Caperton's Ferry, Alabama, and crossing the mountains into 
Lookout Valley, swung his army to the south and west of Chatta- 
nooga, rendering the occupation of that city untenable by Bragg 
with his line of supplies threatened in his rear. From my slight 
acquaintance with famous military campaigns I believe that the 
display of grand tactics by Rosecrans fairly rivals that of any- 
thing in history, and was as brilliant and successful as the famous 
campaign of John Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough, before 
the battle of Blenheim in 1704. 

Instead of commenting on the campaign of the Army of the 
Cumberland against Chattanooga, which I freely grant that from 
a technical military point of view I am incapable of, I prefer to 
dwell upon the movements of my own regiment in that campaign. 

In the afternoon of August 16th, 1863, my regiment, attached 
to Wilder's Brigade, moved out from Dechard. and climbed the 
Cumberland Mountains to University Place, and crossing Into the 
Sequatchie Valley, climbed and crossed Walden's Ridge, reaching 
Poe's Tavern in the Tennessee Valley, twelve miles north of 
Chattanooga, on the 21st of August; on the 22nd, Wilder and 
his brigade went to a point north of Chattanooga to directly 
threaten that city, while my regiment went to Harrison's Land- 
ing, threatening to cross at that point fifteen miles north of 
Chattanooga. We found the enemy in earthworks on the edge 
of the river on the opposite bank, with quite a heavy fort on the 
hills back from the river, mounting three guns en barbette. Our 
Spencer rifles carried over the river easily, nearly a mile wide, and 
the Confederates were kept closely within their rifle pits by our 
sharpshooters. 

For a bullet from a rifle to travel a mile takes a long time. 
Let me illustrate that. The Confederate officer of the day, with 
his sash across his shoulder, came riding down to the river from 
the Confederate fort, and was soon kneeling under a box elder 
tree on the bank of the river, and I said to my adjutant standing 
by me. "What is he doing?" but I had hardly asked the question, 
when a blue puff of smoke told me that he was shooting at us; 



Adjutant Lawver stepped behind a tree, when the bullet from the 
Confederate rifle passed over my head, and through the side of 
the house by which I was standing, wounding one of my soldiers 
inside of the house, the first soldier in my regiment to be struck 
with rebel lead. If you see a man shooting a rifle at you a mile 
away, you will have abundant time to dodge before the bullet 
reaches you; if you can dodge behind a tree, as my Adjutant did, 
you will be safe: but if you are in the open you may as well stand 
still, for you are as liable to dodge in front of the bullet as away 
from it. 

On the 24th of August I returned to Harrison's Landing 
with my regiment and two 10-pound rifled guns of Lilly's 
Indiana Battery, under a Lieutenant. He was a volunteer 
officer, but a studious one, and had mastered the science of 
artillery firing. I placed the two guns on the bluff on our side of 
the river, and ordered the Lieutenant to open fire at the 
Confederate fort, probably about two miles away, when I rode 
on to the bank of the river, opposite the Confederate fort, where 
I could plainly see the effect of the artillery firing. I waited 
an hour for the guns to open, but they didn't, and I rode back 
to see about it. He had cut down some trees to get a plain 
view of the Confederate fort, dug holes for the trails of the guns, 
and there they stood, pointing at the sky, and the Lieutenant 
stood there steadily eyeing the Confederate fort, with its three 
guns, en barbette, a brass gun in the center and a steel gun each 
side of it. I yelled at him to know why he didn't fire, and he 
replied, without taking his eyes from the fort, "I am waiting 
for some one to stand up on the parapet of the fort; I have an 
instrument here (a flat piece of brass full of holes of different 
sizes) by which I can tell the exact distance in yards if some one 
will stand up; with another instrument I know the elevation, 
just how much lower that fort is than where my guns stand." I 
replied, "Perhaps no soldier will ever stand up," and he answered, 
"Oh, yes, there will," and almost immediately said, "There, I 
have got it," and while he kneeled upon the ground to figure 
out the problem, and cut his shells, and load his guns, I dis- 
mounted and went down the bluff immediately in front of his 
guns until I found a place from which I could plainly see the 
Confederate fort, and, adjusting my field glass, hoped to see. the 
effect of his shots; but I was enveloped in smoke when he fired, 
and could see nothing. But we learned the effect of his scien- 
tific firing a few days afterward when we captured a copy of 
the D^ily Chattanooga Rebel, printed on wall paper, Henry Wat- 
terson, now the distinguished editor of the Louisville Courier- 
.Tournal. publisher, that said the Yankee artillery at Harrison's 



Landing at the first fire dismounted the brass gun in the Con- 
federate fort, and killed four men. No one showed himself 
about that fort afterwards, and, although he continued firing, 
more to make a noise and worry Bragg at Chattanooga than 
anything else, the Confederates made no attempt to reply to our 
artillery. Those two shots by him, scientifically fired, after 
he knew the elevation and distance, hit the mark and did the 
business. Roosevelt says, "It is the shots that hit that count;" 
that is true. One center shot is worth forty shot at random. 
That is why. Dewey, in Manilla Bay, sunk the Spanish fleet. I 
spent several days, a few years ago, at Fortress Monroe, in Vir- 
ginia, and all the foi-enoon of each day listened to the firing of 
heavy guns by the battleships of our navy at targets, when it cost 
five hundred dollars for every shot fired. The absolute accuracy 
of scientific firing is an astonishment. I have seen a man fire 
sixteen shots at a target one even mile away, ad hit the bull's 
eye every shot, and he declared that he could hit it every time 
for a hundred shots. Our navy is made up of volunteers; it is 
expensive to educate them, but they make the best gunners in 
the world, and if we keep a navy at all, it is the greatest econ- 
omy to keep it always in a state of the highest efficiency. 

Our country has, and always will, depend upon patriotic 
volunteers in time of need. I read in an English magazine that 
an Englishman on one of Dewey's ships in Manilla Bay noticed 
that the gunner's lips moved as if he was saying something after 
each shot. He crowded up close to him, and every time the gun 
was fired the gunner said "Cash." The Englishman told the 
captain of the ship about it, who said the explanation was easy — 
that gunner before he enlisted in the navy was a dry-goods clerk, 
and always said "Cash" when a transaction was completed. The 
soldiers who saved the Republic were citizen soldiers, the best 
soldiery in the world, and it will always be so while the Republic 
shall endure. 

On September 4th, 1868. my regiment was ordered to join 
Wilder, north of Chattanooga, and on reporting to Wilder I 
found that my regiment was ordered to report to General Thomas 
to be used by General Rosecrans for scouting purposes, and 
immediately ascended to the top of Walden's Ridge, a continua- 
tion of Lookout Mountain, on the north side of the Tennessee 
River, and from that elevation I looked for hours with my field 
glass into the deserted streets of Chattanooga, and became con- 
vinced that Bragg had evacuated that Confederate stronghold. 
Crossing the Tennessee River on the pontoons at Bridgeport, I 
reported to General Thomas, and in person to General Rosecrans 
at Trenton, twenty miles from Chattanooga, on the west side of 



Lookout Mountain, on the forenoon of September 8th, 1863, and 
gave General Rosecraus my reason for believing that Chatta- 
nooga had been evacuated by Bragg, and nothing left there but 
his cavalry to curtain his movements. I told General Rosecrans 
I had found a cow-path on the west side of Lookout Mountain, 
four miles from its head, that cattle could go up onto the mount- 
ain, and offered to send a body of the Ninety-Second men onto 
the mountain by that cow-path, and drive the enemy's cavalry 
from off the mountain, demonstrating that Chattanooga was evac- 
uated, and by the order of General Rosecrans I did so, and again 
reported to him in person at Trenton about 9 o'clock on the 
•evening of September Sth, 1863, and was ordered by him to take 
the advance into Chattanooga on the morning of the 9th of 
September, 1863. Crossing the nose of the mountain on the 
Nashville road early on the morning of September 9th, I found 
the enemy's cavalry holding the road, and my regiment was driv- 
ing them over the mountain when Wilder's Brigade battery from 
Moccasin Point on the north side of the Tennessee began throw- 
ing its shells onto the mountain, enfilading my line of skir- 
mishers, .and I was compelled to fall back. It was decidedly 
disagreeable to be fired upon by the artillery of the brigade to 
which my regiment belonged. How to communicate with Wilder 
and stop that firing was a difficult problem, and I thought the 
only way to do so would be to have some one swim the river; 
but that would occasion long delay. A little boy, a stranger to 
me, said he had served in the signal corps, and could send a 
message by tying his handkerchief to two hazel sticks, and when 
he was ready, standing on a jutting rock where he could be seen 
by Wilder's men across the river, he inquired what message, 
and I said, "Ninety-Second Illinois," and he had not long been 
waving his flag, spelling out the words, when Wilder's men on the 
north side of the river set up a great cheer, and, knowing they 
would no longer fire upon us, we pressed forward, driving the 
Confederates before us and off the mountain, and at 10 o'clock 
a. m. the flag of the Ninety-Second Illinois Volunteers was float- 
ing from the top of the Crutchfield House, the first Union flag to 
float in Chattanooga since Bragg's army occupied that place. 

I had brought to me every person I could find, .and sent 
word back to Rosecrans that Bragg had evacuated the city and 
fallen back beyond Chickamauga with the intention of giving 
battle as soon as his reinforcements came from Lee's army in 
Virginia. 

Now, keep this date carefully in mind, September 9th, 1863, 
while the battle of Chickamauga was not begun until ten days 
after that, on September 19th, 1863. I believed then, and I 
believe now, that General Rosecrans could have put the Army of 



the Cumberland into Chattanooga by the evening of September 
10th, 1863, without the loss of a man or a wheel. I know that 
he could have done that, and the battle of Chickamauga, with its 
awful loss of life, have been wholly avoided. It was a useless 
battle, and because it was useless and disastrous Rosecrans was 
relieved from the command of the Army of the Cumberland, 
and was never again restored to favor as an army commander. 
These views are not new; they were entertained and expressed 
by me at that time, and I have entertained them ever since, and 
never hesitated to express them. The battle of Chickamauga 
was a useless battle, the broken and shattered Army of the Cum- 
berland driven from the field and cooped up and nearly starved 
to death in Chattanooga, that Kbsecrans was in full possession 
of on September 9th, 1863, and which might have been held by 
him with his full army intact, with abundant force to protect his 
line of supplies, and where he never could have been or would 
have been assaulted by the Confederate army. That was my 
deliberate judgment at that time, and, it will be. in my opinion, 
the deliberate judgment of history. My opinion may not be worth 
much, because I am technically not an educated soldier. Neither 
was John Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough, the greatest sol- 
dier England ever produced, an educated soldier. He was abso- 
lutely without any military education whatever when he was 
placed at the head of the English army. Common sense is often 
quite as valuable as technical military knowledge, and by every 
rule of common sense, Rosecrans should have occupied the evac- 
uated city of Chattanooga when he became in full possession of 
.it on September 9th, 1863, and have avoided entirely the bloody 
and disastrous battle of Chickamauga. 

My orders from General Rosecrans were to enter the city 
of Chattanooga, obtain all the information possible concerning 
the evacuation by Bragg, and to return to him with my regiment. 
When I was ready to start back the road was filled with Critten- 
den's corps of the Army of the Cumberland, that followed me- 
into Chattanooga, and when just ready to return I was ordered 
by General Crittenden to go up the Tennessee River to Fire 
Island, ten miles, and enable Wilder with his brigade to cross. 
I told Crittenden of my order to return to General Rosecrans, 
but he gave me positive orders, and I obeyed, driving small par- 
ties of the Confederate cavalry before me until I reached a famous 
grape plantation eight miles north of Chattanooga, where I 
learned that Wilder's Brigade was already crossing the river; 
putting my regiment into camp I rode forward to communicate 
with Wilder, and was by him positively ordered to march with 
his bi-igade the next day. which I did. camping at night at Gray- 



ville, almost directly east of Chattanooga, and during the night 
I received positive orders to report with my regiment to General 
Rosecrans at La Fayette, Georgia, and moving before daylight 
on September 11th I struck the Confederate pickets about two 
miles north of Ringgold. Sending word back to Wilder I dis- 
mounted my regiment, when the enemy mounted and moved out 
to charge my line — waiting until they were close upon me my 
repeating Spencer rifles halted their charge and turned it back. 
Then they formed in two lines to renew the charge when Wilder 
came up with a section of 10-pound rifled cannon, and opened 
immediately. Instantly the artillery fire was answered, but not 
a shot came near us; firing again with our artillery, instantly 
came the response. We did not know it then, but Crittenden's 
troops were approaching Ringgold from the west and we from 
the north, and it was Crittenden's guns we heard, while Forrest 
retreated through Ringgold gap. Had Crittenden's troops and 
Welder's Brigade been acting in concert. General Forrest and his 
cavalry would have been captured at Ringgold. Sending out a 
company on the La Fayette road, the enemy was found in strong 
force at the Chickamauga River, and my regiment marched to 
Rossville, reaching there after dark. Confident that Rosecrans 
was in Chattanooga, and not in La Fayette, I sent officers to Chat- 
tanooga before daylight on the 12th of September, but they did 
not return to me, and an hour after daylight I took the road to 
La Fayette, striking the enemy in strong force at Gordon's Mill 
on the Chickamauga. I was without corn for my animals, and find- 
ing a cornfield I fed my horses and filled the nose-bags with corn, 
and was just about to cross the river with my regiment when 
I received a written order from General Rosecrans to send my 
regiment to the foot of Lookout Mountain and report in person 
to General Roser-rans at Chattanooga, which I did, and was or- 
dered to find Thomas somewhere on Lookout Mountain, and 
marching all night down the mountain I communicated with 
Thomas at daylight on September 13th, and sent word to General 
Rosecrans at Chattanooga. During the day my regiment followed 
General Thomas down the mountain on its east side at Dug Gap. 
On the 14th, 15th, 16th and 17th of September with my regiment 
I scouted the country between Dug Gap and Gordon's Mill, finding 
the crossings of the Chickamauga always heavily guarded by the 
enemy. I was never ordered to scout south an J east of the 
Chickamauga River. I never knew why. No Union soldiers ever 
were sent by Rosecrans south of that river so far as I know. The 
woods were full of Rebel spies pretending to be deserters, and 
by the order of General Rosecrans none of them were arrested or 
interfered with in any way. as Rosecrans believed that Bragg's 
armv was disintegrating and going home, and General Rosecrans 



thought that the Rebel spies were deserters from Bragg's army. 
They were liot. They were well and strong, and well clothed, 
and such men seldom desert from any army. I never could 
understand the infatuation of a Union General who by his own 
official orders filled his camps with spies from the forces oppos- 
ing him. 

Early on the morning of September 19th, 1863, the Army of 
the Cumberland began its race for Chattanooga, where that army 
might have been and should have been safely placed ten days 
before that time. In that race the Army of the Cumberland was 
attacked in flank by Bragg's army. The Army of the Cumberland 
would repulse the enemy at some point, and immediately move 
on toward Chattanooga. All day long it was a continuous race. 
At about 10 a. m. my regiment was ordered by General Rose- 
crans to take position and rest in a field southeast of Widow 
Glenn's house, and putting my regiment in the field, I sent out a 
skirmish line into the woods in my front, and captured a prisoner 
from the Confederate skirmish line that was found west of the 
La Fayette road. The prisoner was brought immediately to me. 
He was a Virginia boy, badly frightened at first, but he soon told 
me that he belonged to Longstreet's corps from the Virginia 
Army, and detailed to me how he came by cars, where they dis- 
embarked, and how they marched to the battlefield. I took the 
prisoner, the first one captured from Longstreet's corps, to Gen- 
eral Rosecrans at his then headquarters at Widow Glenn's house, 
and told him that I had a prisoner from Longstreet's corps, when 
Rosecrans flew into a passion, denounced the little boy as a liar, 
declared that Longstreet's corps was not there. The little boy 
prisoner was so frightened that he would not speak a word. In 
sorrow T turned away, and joined my regiment. Rosecrans found 
out that Longstreet's corps was there. 

Shortly 1 was ordered to march rapidly toward Chattanooga, 
and I suppose a mile or so northeast of Widow Glenn's house I 
met General Joseph J. Reynolds, who told me that King's Brigade 
of his division was broken by the enemy, and ordered me to dis- 
mount and try to stop the enemy that was pouring through our 
lines, which I did, and the Ninety-Second, with their Spencer 
rifles, easily, on three occasions, drove the enemy back in its 
immediate front as they emerged from the woods east of the 
La Fayette road; but they swarmed by my right flank in great 
force, and I was compelled to withdraw. I found thousands of 
Union troops in disorder floating off through the woods toward 
Chattanooga, but I sought and found the left flank of the Con- 
federate troops that had broken through our lines, and reported 
to Colonel Wilder at Vinings, and was ordered by him to put my 
regiment in line dismounted on the left of his brigade. 

10 



During the night of the 19th of September Ro^ecrans with- 
drew McCook"s corps on his right, and formed a new line on the 
low hills southwest of Widow Glenn's, Wilder withdrawing his 
brigade and forming a new line south of McCooks corps; but my 
regiment mounted before daylight covered the entire front of 
Wilder's Brigade, ordered to fall back to the new line when 
pressed by the enemy. 

Daylight came; with it white flags in our front where the 
Confederates were burying their dead. An hour after daylight I 
discovered a heavy column of the enemy, in column of companies 
doubled on the center, slowly and silently creeping past my left 
flank toward the left flank of McCook's corps. I repeatedly sent 
him information of the approach of that heavy column of the 
enemy, but he testily declared that there was no truth in it, and 
refused to send a skirmish line of his own, that he might easily 
have done, and found out for himself. When Longstreefs corps 
sprang with a yell upon the left flank of McCook's corps, the line 
in my front advanced, and I retired to join Wilder as ordered. 
McCook's corps was wiped off the field without any attempt at 
real resistance, and floated off from the battlefield like flecks of 
foam upon a river. His artillerymen cut the traces, and leaving 
the guns, rode away toward Chattanooga. The rout of McCook's 
corps was complete. 1 found Wilder, who proposed to charge 
through Longstreefs corps with his brigade, and join Thomas on 
Snodgrass Hill, but Charles A. Dana, Assistant Secretary of War, 
rode up and ordered Wilder not to make the charge, declaring 
the battle was lost, and ordering Wilder to Chattanooga by the 
Dry Valley road. Lingering long on the field, taking up the Union 
hospitals at Crawfish Spring, and taking with him the abandoned 
artillery of McCook's corps. Wilder sullenly retired, followed by 
a light force of the Confederate cavalry. 

The heroic conduct of Thomas on Snodgrass Hill saved the 
Army of the Cumberland from total rout and defeat, but that 
gallant soldier with his jaded but brave troops sought safety in 
flight to Rossville Gap under the cover of the friendly darkness 
of the night. 

The useless battle had been fought, the useless sacrifice of 
thousands of brave men of the Army of the Cumberland had 
been made, and the shattered remnant of the Army of the Cum- 
berland in Chattanooga, where the entire army might have been 
and ought to have been on the evening of September 10th, 1863, 
without the loss of a man or a wheel. 

I cannot linger to tell how Hooker and Howard came from 
the Army of the Potomac to rescue the Army of the Cumberland 

11 



from its terrible plight: how the Army of the Tennessee hastened 
under Sherman from Vicksburg, of the battle above the clouds by 
Hookers brave soldiers, or how the brave men of the Army of 
the Cumberland, without orders and against orders, sprung for- 
ward, up, and up, and up, for three hundred feet to the very 
mouths of the Confederate cannon belching grape and canister 
in their faces, sweeping Bragg and his Confederate Army off 
from Missionary Ridge. It is a magnificent story that the sur- 
viving soldiers of the grand old Army of the Cumberland will 
not cease telling while life lasts. 

The volunteer soldiers were not only brave always, but they 
were sensible always. They complained very loudly when they 
had a right to complain, and they submitted to every hardship. 
Mithout complaint when there was necessity for it. Let me illus- 
trate that. After the battle of Chickamauga my regiment was 
sent north of Chattanooga, on the north side of the river, to 
guard the river for forty miles. We were without rations for 
animals or men, living on a few grains of corn gathered from the 
rubbish left in the fields where all the corn had been taken long 
before, and unripe chestnuts, that we had to cut down the chest- 
nut trees to gather. But we had a pack mule train, seventy-five 
mules with pack-saddles, and 1 sent the train over the mountains 
to bring rations from Bridgeport for the men of my regiment. 
One night we heard that the pack mule train loaded with rations 
was encamped on the mountain above Poe's Tavern, and would 
be down in the morning about 10 o'clock. That was joyful news 
for the men of my regiment. But at 8 o'clock the next morning 
I received a letter from General Garfield, Chief of Staff of the 
Army of the Cumberland, ordering me not to take one ration 
from the train, but to send the train on to Chattanooga. I gave 
the information to the men of my regiment. Did they complain? 
No. Not one man made one word of complaint. When the train 
came along about 10 o'clock, without any order of any kind, the 
men of the Ninety-Second lined up by the side of the road, swing- 
ing their hats and cheering when their own rations went by and 
onward toward Chattanooga, where their brave comrades of the 
Army of the Cumberland could not get green chestnuts to eat. 
That was the kind of men that composed the volunteer Army of 
the Union who saved the Republic. 

Some of them are here tonight. They compose your Grand 
Army post here in Mendota. Honor them while yet you may, for, 
in only a few years more, the last one of that Grand Army will 
have gone beyond the dark river. 

But the young men of today are as patriotic as the young 
men of ISfil. and if the time ever comes when the Republic is in 

12 



danger they will spring to arms and repeat the heroic deeds of 
their fathers, and the Republic will last "until the sun grows 
cold, and the stars are old, and the leaves of the judgment book 
unfold." 




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